State suspects pushcart pact

Did Haymarket vendors cut deal with developer?

Greg TurnerWednesday, January 23, 2013

Credit: Unknown

QUESTIONS: The state is asking if any of the two finalists competing to win development rights for the Parcel 9 site on the Greenway, Blackstone Market and the Haymarket Square Hotel have made any side agreements with the Haymarket Pushcart Association.

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The state is close to picking a developer for a key site on Boston’s Greenway, but first it wants to know if developers have cut any side deals with the Haymarket Pushcart Association — a group with considerable sway on the Parcel 9 project.

The bidding is down to two finalists. Blackstone Market has garnered significant community support for its proposed complex of 50 apartments, three restaurants and a rooftop farm on the triangular parcel next to the produce vendor area.

However, the other contender, the 180-room Haymarket Square Hotel featuring specialty food shops, restaurants and a rooftop garden, could have the advantage with its higher bid.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation recently raised questions about “what we understand to be a financial agreement that may exist” between the pushcart group and Blackstone Market developers Cresset Development and DeNormandie Cos. regarding trash removal.

MassDOT later asked both the Blackstone Market team and hotel proponent Normandy Real Estate Partners to lay all their cards on the table.

“We want to know whatever each developer is offering ... so we can fairly evaluate the proposal,” said MassDOT spokeswoman Cyndi Roy. “We are open to both proposals but want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence before we make a decision.”

In a Dec. 23 letter to MassDOT, pushcart president Otto Gallotto took issue with what he called “innuendo” that the group’s backing for Blackstone Market “is somehow being bought.” He said the benefits offered would “protect the future viability of the market” but do not involve a “direct payment” — a statement echoed by developer Philip DeNormandie.

“Our goal is to coordinate the trash removal between the Blackstone Block and the Haymarket pushcarts,” DeNormandie said. “But everybody has to pay for their own share.”

In 2010, the state killed a previous round of bidding for Parcel 9 after the pushcart group argued that a housing proposal favored by the state would not mesh with Haymarket merchants who set up carts in the predawn hours.

“It’s just odd (the pushcart group’s) support would be leaning toward another proposal for housing,” said Normandy Real Estate principal Justin Krebs.

Gallotto told MassDOT his group now supports apartments because there would be fewer units, no condo conversions, and leases would warn tenants about Haymarket operations.